I think what we are trying
to say is, Tell Me I'm Wrong.
The word you are looking for
has already been excised.
Your vocabulary does not
contain it. The word, in fact, exists.
Only it is
devoid of meaning. Now it is spoken
as a joke. As code for,
"what those hypocrites
preach in their tent meetings; what the tight-lipped
whisper over tea." It feels so far
from genocide, from death row. Somewhere someone
commits atrocities on purpose. Meanwhile,
we amuse ourselves.
We wear slippers, imagining
how we compare.
Until, some night
a splinter in the mind
tells us we too
carry the seed.
Until we feel a menace
rising in the throat, enough
to throttle the offender.
I am the devil.
We cannot call it like it is. We do not want to be rescued.
Only, some small
part of us is just, and wants to be damned.
So we wander
hungry
for someone bold
enough
to name it.
--
